It's hard to believe that the summer is finally winding down. Sure, we still have about a month left, but with temps hitting the 40 degree (F) mark lately at night, it's pretty easy to imagine the days of jeans, hoodies, and flannels.
Unfortunately for me, that also means that the majority of my content I spent the summer collecting for Hive is starting to dry up. That isn't to say my posts are going to go down the toilet, but it does mean I might not have as many graphically pleasing posts in the future. Trust me, it isn't going to be a wall of text either, but they might be a little more contemplative and less flashy.
Winters are always tough, so I hope you stick with me through it.
Before I get there though, I have been amassing a bundle of food posts that I want to share with you. The first being this smoked queso dish that @mrsbozz and I threw together for one of our camping trips this past summer.
If you have been following me for a while, you know that @mrsbozz is not a beef eater. That means we eat a lot of chicken most of the time. I get an occasional burger or steak here and there and we eat probably more pork than we should, but the majority of our protein diet is chicken. We go through about 10 pounds per month of chicken in fact.
While not all queso's have meat in them, we decided to start ours with some ground chicken. We make our own taco seasoning blend since many of those packets in the store are high in sodium. It's pretty simple, just eyeball some chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, and oregano into a container. Mix it up, and you are good to go.
If you are a Traeger Pellet Smoker fan, you have probably seen recipes like this before. There are two things that make what we made here more unique.
I'm not a fan of pellet smokers. I've never used one, and the food from them tastes just fine, but I feel like it is cheating. While I appreciate the benefits of being able to "set it and forget it", I also feel that BBQ is more of an art and like all good art it requires sacrifice. Using wood or charcoal and keeping a steady temperature is a delicate dance that you learn over time through patience and practice.
@mrsbozz is not a fan of that processed Velveeta cheese, which unfortunately is the base for most queso's. In fact, her pallet is so discerning that if we are out in a restaurant and they serve a queso that has Velveeta as the base, she can tell right away. The same is true for Cheez Wiz. She just can't stand it.
Which means, we needed to come up with our own recipe that had some tweaks to work around the lack of Velveeta.
I started preparing our good old Weber Kettle grill charcoal grill, while @mrsbozz was inside working on prepping all of the ingredients for the queso. By the time it went on the grill, it looked something like this:
So basically, block colby and sharp cheddar cheese, Rotel tomatoes with other stuff included, the chicken taco meat we made, cream cheese, and a can of green chilies along with some other spices.
I used a modified version of the snake method to set up my grill. I threw a couple of chunks of hickory on there to get a nice smoky flavor in the queso.
It really doesn't take long to make this, so about a half hour to an hour into the cook, I checked on it and I gave it a stir to get the ingredients all mixed together.
Another half hour or so and it was good to go. I know it doesn't look very appealing in this picture, but trust me when I say the flavors were on point. It was quite good, and our friends who we shared it with raved about it.
Of course we are our own worst critics and there are definitely some things I would have changed about it. First, I would have left the sharp cheddar out of the mix. Perhaps replaced it with something else. The problem is, sharp cheese just doesn't melt that great. There is something about it or the way it is made that tends to make it separate. You can see indications of that in some of the photos.
That kind of yellow oily look is from the cheese separating. That's why a lot of people use Velveeta honestly because it is pretty much made for melting.
I also felt the smoke flavor gave the queso a bit of an acrid taste. I'm not sure if I used the wrong kind of wood (maybe apple or cherry would have been a better choice), or if I didn't have my charcoal burning hot enough before I started the cook and the unlit coals gave it the bitter taste.
Either way, I think with a few small modifications, this can be a dish that we really love. I'm definitely willing to try it again! I never turn down an opportunity to play with my grill!
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
This is unquestionably an art form of its own. Furthermore, I had no prior knowledge that varying types of wood could impart distinct flavors to the food 😱
In Singapore, opportunities for BBQ, especially in our own homes, are rather rare. Most often, we resort to stove or gas fire cooking!
I can see how that would be the case in big cities. My wife was looking at a condo on the third floor to buy back when we were house hunting and my first question was where would I put my grill?
Hahaa you love your grill for sure! 😅
There are also certain rules within the housing units here that we will have to comply, having a massive grill or a BBQ session within the house could prove to be a fire hazard. We have designated BBQ pits for rental by the beach for example to do that but it would be a logistical nightmare to bring everything over for a cook out! 😣
I can't even imagine. I need my personal space to do my grilling. I have read about some places that don't allow charcoal grills because of the smoke, but they are okay with gas grills. I don't think I could handle that either!
Having a gas grill definitely take away the fun and the whole essence of a BBQ isn't it? 😅
Yeah, it's practically blasphemous!
Haha yeah exactly that!
Looking forward to more of your food recipe post and see if I could replicate any of them ✌️
Wow 40 degrees! It's still 40 here.... but 40 on the other scale, so around 106 f. The Japanese weather service just announced that this is the hottest summer on record in Japan, and another few weeks of it are expected. Le sigh...
The food looks good!
I don't think they are going to get any better. It just keeps getting hotter and hotter.
Cheddar has great flavour, challenge is that in order to melt it requires a different temp which at most times will not match cooking times with other ingredients or cheese of different profiles.
For sure! Great point!
First of all, a very nice dish. Will try it sometimes :) You are right about the Traeger, it's awesome to make pulled porc because of the "fire and forget" :) Long runs, but I like the 'art' of BBQ and cooking myself a lot. I swapped my Traeger for a Grill Guru Camado. I gave my traeger to my brother and he is enjoying it a lot.
That is awesome! I remember you getting your Traeger. My dad has a Kamado Joe and he loves it. I'd like to get one someday, but they are so out of my price range. I'd also like to get a Cotton Gin Smoker too.
I think so many people will be happy that summer is going because of the heat
Also, the food looks so yummy
I love it!
We are finally getting some relief from the heat this week. Next week on the other hand looks to be brutal.
Great work Bozz. Good to see you busting new moves on the grill. I thought the oily partof melted cheddar was supposed to be the best? Is it an American cheddar or you sourced from Europe?
The winter is tough and seems longer each year. I think I need to find a plan to migrate for the winter!
I am guessing it is an American Cheddar. We have some really good cheese around here. I actually work in a town that is well known for its cheese. We have four cheese shops within ten minutes that I can get pretty much anything I want from. I don't mind the weather in winter. It just gets hard to come up with stuff to write about!
Yeah true, I see what you mean. I find the weather too much. Will be interesting to see what you come up with this year!
Thanks! I hope I don't disappoint!
It looks yummy, No worries, you hive family will stick with you in the winters as well.
Thanks, I appreciate it! The flavors were good, but not quite where I had hoped they would be.
Esa comida se ve súper exquisita..yo quiero un poco para probar.